Just Back: Michael Douglas from Bermuda

H. Scott Jolley

May 15, 2009

I recently bought a house in Bermuda and was meeting with the architect to check on the renovations. But I've been coming down here all my life. My mother's whole family is from Bermuda; they arrived as early as the 1600's. We still have a large group here: 40 cousins live on the island; some even have pictures in their houses of my great-great-grandfather. We all meet at Caliban's, the restaurant in the Ariel Sands hotel, to catch up and drink Dark and Stormys (dark rum and ginger beer). What I love most about Bermuda is that it hasn't changed much since it became England's first colony. It has an entire British culture: people drive on the left side of the road, and everyone's so polite — which overwhelmed my wife, Catherine, the first time she visited. I never get tired of seeing men dressed in ties, blue blazers, shorts, and kneesocks. Unfortunately, my own legs are a little too skinny for Bermuda shorts.